PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES: ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

From Pastor John Collins: 

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens!  That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence- As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil- To make Your name know to Your adversaries,That the nations may tremble at Your presence! When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence.” Isaiah 64:1-3 (NKJV).

God created mankind and has not left him alone. God has come down, given His word, directed and fought for His people and has given His Son for us. God has come down and instructed His people and God has given man free will. God has not given up on mankind and yet so many want God to come down again.

What would you do if God came to you? Would you feel justified in His presence, would you welcome Him and would you feel good about discussing your life and your choices with Him? If God came down would you be ready and would your faith allow you to believe?

Many people only want to think of God as love, compassion, kindness and grace and they choose to ignore that He is righteous anger, justice and truth. God is full of love and grace for the soul who seeks Him and believes in His Son which is why it is so important to care for your soul before you care for anything else because once you pass away then you have to deal with God’s righteous anger and justice if you have failed to obey His instructions.

Benjamin Franklin said that you should not put off until tomorrow what you can do today and today you can get right with God so that when He does reveal Himself to you, you will be ready.

“But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And we are all the work of Your hand.” Isaiah 64:8 (NKJV).

LOVE THAT CROSS, PASTOR JOHN COLLINS

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES: TODAY'S BEATITUDES

From John Collins Ministries:

Hope, Trust, Grace....blessings for today.
Pastor John Collins

BEATITUDES FOR TODAY

“Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come. Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them.” Psalm 65:1-3 (NKJV).

Blessed are you who know the power of the cross and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Blessed is the lonely pilgrim making his way home because of the hope that the cross provides. 

Blessed is the one who looks upon Jesus with trust and conviction. 

Blessed is the sinner who finds redemption in grace. 

“Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple.” Psalm 65:4 (NKJV).

LOVE THAT CROSS, PASTOR JOHN COLLINS

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES: LIVE SAVING BELIEF

Pastor John Collins says:

Believe me, there is still plenty today for Jesus to weep over.
John Collins, Evangelist

“It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’  Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”  John 6:45 (NKJV).

The teachings of Jesus were insightful and revealed the heart of the law.  He came with miracles and truth and compassion and mercy.  He came with clarity and sadness for the people.  It is sad to see people refuse to get right with God, to see people rebel in their hearts and choose their own will over God’s will.

It is sad to watch people choose to be sinners and choose to harm others to lift themselves up.  Believe me, there is still plenty today for Jesus to weep over.

Our world is filled with people choosing to self-govern and claim rational thought for themselves and believing that there is no God, that their own moral code will sustain them and see them through this life and that there is no cause to concern themselves with an eternal life.  There are people on the pulpits sharing the good news without teaching the requirements of being a follower of Christ.  There are stubborn people who choose to believe that there is not a right or a wrong way to worship God and that we get to self-determine our God and how we navigate our faith in our life and have concluded that by doing so we will enjoy the outcome that we have decided upon.  It doesn’t work that way!  God came and gave instructions on how to worship Him.  Jesus came and gave insight into the law and gave instructions on how to worship Him.

Nothing has changed.

Grace is given and faith is free but obedience is required to claim them.  You cannot claim to be a person of faith and have fellowship with God when you are living a life of selfishness and unfaithfulness.  If you are a greedy, lying, cheating, vain, malicious, gossiper and drunk then you are not obeying God.  If you are full of bitterness and resentment and refuse to forgive those who you believe have done you wrong then you are not in obedience with God.  If you are consumed with materialism and are obsessed with your looks and your appearance then you are not in obedience with God.  If you are abusing drugs and your body and are not a believer then you are not in obedience with God.  If you are not in obedience with God then you will not see the kingdom of heaven when you die.  It really is that simple.

You must obey God to claim the gifts of God.  Salvation is claimed by those who believe because those who believe will submit to the will of God and will obey God.  I am not talking about casual belief but the belief that produces results in a life, belief that produces change and purity in a life and belief that transforms a life of darkness into one of light.  There is always an opportunity to truly claim Jesus as your savior, not in word only but in truth.  You know whether your life is truly a life that would have God’s stamp of approval and there is just no reason to live in denial.  There is not any time to waste on self-indulgence and sin.  It is time to examine your existence and if you are not right with God then it is time to get right with Him.

Believe in the Son and claim salvation.

“I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”  John 15:5-6 (NKJV).

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS~LOVE THAT CROSS!!

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES: CARELESS IN GRACE

Pastor John Collins:

Your work begins with your obedience-Pastor John Collins

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Eph. 2:8-9 (NKJV).

“Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:17 (NKJV).

We are blessed creatures to be able to experience life. There is a cost, though. In the end, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. That means we must come to know of our condition, what caused us to live under this impending judgment and what we must do to be found acceptable in the eyes of God. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve and all of mankind enters this world with a choice; obey God and accept Him and the Salvation that He offers or don’t. Sounds simple enough, right? The Salvation that He provides is reconciliation which means that all mankind has sinned, all have broken His Commandments and all will fall under that judgment someday. Jesus was sent by God to die for us and it is through Him that we are able to lay hold of that grace that is the supreme mercy of God toward us. Sound like old news, right?

Unfortunately, grace has been distorted, misunderstood and abused. Grace has been preached incorrectly and there is a carelessness that has become woven into the principals of grace. Yes, Jesus died for you and your salvation is free, it is the grace of God that sanctifies you. It is your reception of this free gift that should produce a gratefulness in you that prods you to the works that you should be doing in the name of the Lord. Many people think that means they need to leave the country and go become an evangelist or humanitarian in some other part of the world, or that they need to give more money to their churches, but that is just not so. Your works begin with your obedience. Do you keep the 10 commandments, do you forgive others, do you care more about what others think of you than God, do you care more about your lifestyle, stuff and your looks than you do about God, do you care more about your love life than your bible study and do you live a godly life at home keeping your family firmly in the word of God so that they have the tools to remain unspotted in this world? It all began with a marriage, a union that produced a family and we need to make sure that our families are truly Christ centered, praying together and knowledgeable about the instructions of God so that we can follow those instructions and keep ourselves unpolluted and on the path of righteousness. 

Charity is fine to do, but, what good is charity if you leave from your volunteering to go home and gossip and slander those who were there as well, or just write a check to some non-profit and consider yourself good? You can go and dig a well for some foreign nation all the while you are full of hate toward your brother. You must check your heart and be honest with yourself about your feelings, motives and desires because it will be the fleshly temptations that trip you up and you must be on guard against the dangers of becoming lazy in your faith.

It is necessary to understand that the grace of God is not meant for willful sinners. We all sin, we all stumble and we are meant to repent and seek forgiveness and go and sin no more. We are not meant to think that Jesus died for all of our sins yesterday, today and tomorrow so we have complete assurance and no need to worry about whether we are in obedience to God or not. We should never take the gifts of God for granted, whether that be the breath that we have in our bodies or the grace that He has provided for our souls. We must always strive to purify our lives through our choices, our actions and remember that tomorrow is not guaranteed and we need to be right with the Lord today.

“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” 1 John 1:6 (NKJV).

LOVE THAT CROSS PASTOR JOHN COLLINS

JOHN COLLINS, JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES: PURE LOVE

Posted by Pastor John Collins:

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NKJV).

The love that Paul describes here is holy and pure. It is not the love that so many speak of in this life. Too often people will claim to be in love, then out of love, then in love with another, there is puppy love, your first love, your last love, lust described as love and the list just goes on. You have marriages without commitment and parents without the desire to parent and you have the greatest love of all: the love of self but you do not have an abundance of holy and pure love.

Why is it that people do not have the capacity or desire to embrace a lasting relationship based on love and have a life that is committed to love? People are not committing their lives completely to God is why. It is when you truly understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and have committed to living your life as God has instructed us to live that you begin to know the love of God.

Having given your life to Christ does not make you exempt from hurt in this life but it does soothe the wounds that come. We learn from those things that cause hurt and we grow in our capacity to love. We must first dedicate ourselves to learning how to love in a pure way and that means that we must purify our hearts and forgive the old wounds so that we can heal. We need to be willing to lift others up and not ourselves and be willing to be patient in our lives. This generation of people carries around self-entitlement like a badge of honor. It is shameful and we need to get back to humble roots.

Jesus was humble and always had His priorities straight. Let this generation be willing to learn from Him and be willing to slow down and learn to desire the grace of God. Let your heart swell with love and pray it lingers and sheds light on another in the name of Jesus Christ.

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NKJV).

 LOVE THAT CROSS, PASTOR JOHN